Paid a Visit to the Atlantis and Alvin yesterday with ABC news on board. We leave tomorrow...

Hey everyone well you can imagine we've been running around here in Mobile, AL in preparation for boarding the Atlantis tomorrow! I'm actually taking a quick break and then I have to finish up packing the computer gear! Check it out!  Yesterday we spent the entire day in Gulfport on the Atlantis. We were met by Samantha "Mandy" Joye and did a great interview with her focusing on her experiences in the ALVIN over the last 30 days. You'll see this in the documentary but I can tell you this much "THERE's OIL DOWN THERE," lots of it!
We spent some time in the Science lab with Mandy and then had the opportunity to work with Matt and Erin from ABC news and helped them crunch some video they needed to get out for Nightline.  We heard some of you saw that report so let us know how it looked! We didn't get to see it...Anyhow back to packing!
Got up close with "ALVIN" and you can see that here too. Please send questions and comments and we will try to respond to them ASAP. This is a wonderful scientific expedition and your all invited to come along with Mike deGruy and me...see ya!

Scientists gather at the annual BAYS & BAYOUS Symposium

We're here in Mobile, AL. and spent our first day meeting many of the leading scientists in the Gulf area. There was plenty to learn about the effects of the oil spill in this region and many stories were shared. One interesting story was that of Kerry St Pe who gave an incredibly informative talk on the condition of the wetlands and how they have been in a steady decline over the last several decades. The wetlands play a vital role in the ecosystem and specifically in recovery from catastrophic events such as Hurricanes and pollution. The amazing thing is how resilient they are when left alone vs. digging up the shoreline and removing flora and fauna and sand that may be contaminated with pollutants. Of course the most recent threat to the wetlands has been the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The remedy quite surprisingly enough appears to be to "Just leave them alone." Also amazing to us Kerry St. Pe did believe that using dispersants was actually a good thing. Read more about the wetlands here.

The modern world we live in...Greetings from 35,000 miles high in the sky over Texas

So I'm sitting here on an American Airlines flight headed to Gulfport, MS and posting on the plane from my iPad. It's pretty incredible how far technology can soar in some areas and yet fail in other situations. Take for example the Gulf, a catastrophic failure of technology onboard the DEEPWATER Horizon...There is more information surfacing everyday and maybe some of you out there have your own theories based on the current data available, of course, on the INTERNET. Now if only they could apply some of that great technology out there to cleaning up the oil. We will look into that matter as well. For now 50 year old technology needs to get modernized!

Phase II on LAND Jan 2nd - Feb. 4th

OK so here's the plan for Phase II of "Deepwater Rising." We return to the Gulf and cover it by rugged Range Rover for one month to finish episodes 2-6. More to come...gotta finish packing as we leave at the crack of dawn for Gulfport. Next post will be from the GULF!

Schools on Board via CYBERSPACE

Well at the suggestion from the Academic community we will be responding to children all over the country with any questions they may have relating to the oil spill. We will try to field as many posts as possible and re-direct your questions to the incredible scientific community aboard the Atlantis. I guess we'll need a BELL! School aboard will be in session beginning Dec 6th!

 So to all of you students out there lets see what questions you can come up with...Like hmmm where's all that oil now? Oil is a natural substance can't nature deal with it? What's PLANKTON?

Alvin's last dives during our stay aboard Atlantis after 56 years of service !

The next generation Alvin RHOV

  OK so the word is there will be 6 dives in the Deep Sea Vehicle (DSV) ALVIN on our trip which begins Dec. 5th. We will board in Gulfport, MS and spend the next 8 days in and around the area of the sunken Deepwater Horizon. What we hope to find and what we actually do find will unfold right here on this blog. This is a history making event for two reasons. Number one it is the first series of manned dives into this area that begin this week. Number two it will be the last voyage of the "OLD" Alvin after 50 years of service. It will be re-built with a new sphere that has more windows and will hopefully achieve even greater depths than it's current record dive of over 14,764 feet (4,500 meters). Read here to discover more about ALVIN

  Mike and I will spend each evening going through the 6 hours worth of film that will be shot during each DSV dive. As new discoveries are made you will be right here with us as we log our findings and display some images as well. We will participate in 2-3 of the dives along with noted Penn State University scientist Chuck Fischer.

 Right now we really expect to find oil on the bottom. Things we do not want to find are majestic cetaceans such as Sperm whales or Whale Sharks who may have fallen victim to the oil on the surface. It's also possible that they may also have been the victims of contaminated prey that live in the Deep Scattering Layer (DSL) see diagram below

 Mother Jones article excerpt: "Some early observations of the effects of the Gulf catastrophe suggest the daily vertical migrations of the animals of the deep scattering layer may be blocked when they encounter plumes of oil and contaminants. If so, then trapped below a plume, the DSL fish and invertebrates would be unable to access their prey. Trapped above, they would be unable to escape their predators. Trapped within, they would probably die—and in their deaths, poison those who eat them. For the ocean, any loss of productivity in the deep scattering layer would be the biggest cataclysm of all—impoverishing the surface waters, depleting the coasts, cascading across the boundaries between ocean and land to denude both natural and human economies." ...

So we shall see very shortly...

For more info on Deep Sea Machines click here

Mike deGruy heads out first to speak at Bays & Bayous Symposium

The Alabama-Mississippi Bays & Bayous Symposium is a bi-annual event held alternately in Mississippi and Alabama to provide an opportunity for the community to learn about the state of our coastal environment. This symposium brings together a broad array of scientists, resource managers, local industry representatives and policy makers from throughout the southeast to promote information exchange and networking related to coastal issues that impact long-term sustainability.

The focus for the 2010 Symposium is Science, Industry, Community: Building Bridges to Coastal Health. Our goal is to make a concerted effort to bring scientists together with local industry and community groups to better educate about the status of our understanding about the Northern Gulf coastal ecosystem and processes that alter it; what local industry is implementing to sustain our coastal resources; and how citizens groups are participating in sustaining our coastal resources.

Pre Production meeting in Monterey

Well went to Monterey Bay Aquarium and had a visit with a long time friend that I haven't seen in over 30 years, noted cinematographer Chuck Davis! Had a good hang over at his place on the point and got re-acquainted after nearly 3 decades. Last time I saw Chuck we were working on an underwater film segment for Alan Koslowski along with Cousteau cameraman Louis Prezellin in the Cayman Islands.

So why was I up in Monterey? Well I was gathering information regarding camera equipment as well as researching local habitats for a good comparison to what we will be seeing in the Gulf.  Also enlisting more sponsors for our expedition. Checkout the video above that I shot while we were guests at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Checkout that BAITBALL circling the kelp, beautiful!

FILM MAKING IS GETTING GREENER WITH NEW GEAR

On the Wave has been busy working on Feature Film and also documentaries based on  current Environmental issues.  With the incredible amount of innovative products on the market we have been able to produce the highest quality production for probably the lowest production costs we've seen in years.

 We are now working very closely with several leading edge companies by putting their equipment to the test in the field. From blocked off sets to swamp lands, to on board research vessels in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  You'll see no CHAPMAN Cranes, Fisher Dollies in use in these locations.  Instead you'll see lightweight portable gear that gets us the same look and feel as some of the uber expensive tools of Hollywood.

  DSLRs with their incredible imaging and low light capabilities, accessories like CINE lenses, High power light weight energy efficient batteries, jibs, sliders, data storage like SSD's and more are changing the universe of film making as we know it. And it's all happening at light speed. All of this adds up to a GREENER environment in film development. Minimal lighting, less fuel & vehicles involved and more! Go GREEN!
We will be covering the use of these great tools in the field in all of our behind the scenes videos that will be posted on this blog as soon as we get into Post. So stay tuned and keep following us here, on Facebook and twitter.

Deep Sea Robot added to our Expedition-NIGHT OPS !

Wow sums it up nicely as we have just learned that the new SENTRY DSR will be onboard the Atlantis on our journey to the Gulf. To learn more about it's capabilities click here!

The sentry can stay down for over 20 hours operating on Sonar to avoid collisions with the Ocean floor! A real R2 d2 crusing at depths of over 3.1 Miles !!! It runs on over 1000 Lithium batteries...

The right camera for the right job: Well looks like we're using Canon DSLRs, VideoCams and POV's like Contours HD1080 on our trip. So we've been looking at clever ways to get some backup underwater POV type footage and came across this stuff from Liquid Image and this is really cool stuff indeed! A POV built into a Dive Mask...WIDE HD and the company has generously agreed to donate use for our cause. You can even strap 2 Underwater lights to it for about 9.5 Watts of light. I would say that Mike d. will look mighty photogenic wearing one of these as he's diving with the manatee's when we're down in Florida...